by Bobby Knight | Feb 10, 2015 | Blog
The North Carolina Tar Heels women’s team made it 2 titles in the last 3 years as they defeated a tough Georgia team 4-1 in this afternoon’s ITA Women’s National Team Indoor Championship. North Carolina jumped up on Georgia early in doubles and really cruised on both courts 2 and 3 taking each 6-2. North Carolina carried the momentum from doubles over to singles and took 1st sets at 1, 2, 3, and 4 while Georgia grabbed the opening set at 5 and 6. It looked like it was going to be a Tar Heel rout but Georgia started slowly pecking away at the UNC leads on courts 1, 3, and 4 by going up early breaks in the 2nd set. The only court...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 9, 2015 | Blog
Ohio State just doesn’t lose at home and they proved it again on Sunday winning for an unbelievable 200th time in a row as they handily beat a Top 25 South Florida team 4-0. The streak began all the way back on April 6th, 2003 with a win over Purdue and has grown and grown as the years have gone by. During the week I’m going to compile a list of everyone that Ohio State has beaten at home in the last 12 years so look for that no later than Wednesday. Here is a good article that Colette Lewis wrote on the streak back in 2013.In my opinion the biggest surprise for Ohio State this year has been the play of Chris Diaz at #1. Last year...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 8, 2015 | Blog
Saturday didn’t have any Top 10 showdowns but there were several solid matches between ranked teams. The biggest upset of the day, in terms of ranking, came in Blacksburg as #37 Virginia Tech took it to #22 Penn State 4-1. The Hokies took 10 of 11 sets in singles after dropping the doubles point. Penn State has now lost 2 of its last 3 and is looking at a tough road next weekend when they head to Chicago for the National Indoors against the best of the best with its opening match against #1 USC. VT RecapPSU Recap#37 Virginia Tech 4, #22 Penn State 1Singles1. #35 Amerigo Contini (VT) def. Leonard Stakhovsky (PSU) 7-5, 6-32. #61 Andreas...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 7, 2015 | Blog
The weekend is here and it was a fantastic Friday of tennis with the match of the day taking place in front of a national ESPN3 audience as Florida went into Tallahassee and pulled out a 4-2 win. Florida State picked up the doubles point by winning at 1 and 3 but Florida came out swinging in singles taking 4 1st sets. After FSU extended the lead to 2-0 with a Cristian Gonzalez Mendez win at 5, Florida started finishing off courts 1 by 1 with Gordon Watson winning at 4 then Chase Perez-Blanco at 6. With the score tied at 2-2, each of the remaining matches went to a 3rd set and after Elliott Orkin closed out Michael Rinaldi at #3 to give Florida its...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 6, 2015 | Blog
After a slow week things kick back into high gear tomorrow with the start of the Women’s National Team Indoors and with a fairly full slate on the men’s side.Georgia at Georgia Tech (5pm est) – The Bulldogs have won 27 of the last 28 in the series but Georgia Tech looks better this year than they have in a while. These teams just met 2 weeks ago at the MLK Invitational in Atlanta with Georgia Tech taking 4 of 7 singles matches and 2 of 3 in doubles in the hidden dual format. Georgia’s Wayne Montgomery didn’t participate in the weekend event so with him back in the lineup and possibly playing at #1 I think the Bulldogs will...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 5, 2015 | Blog
The University of Oklahoma announced today that 5 of its spring duals will air online at SoonerSports.TV as well Fox Sports Oklahoma. This is great news for those that have been waiting to see more college tennis action broadcasted in a format other just the basic live stream that some schools provide. For the full release from OU click here.2015 OKLAHOMA MEN’S TENNIS TELEVISION SCHEDULESunday, Feb. 8 vs. Alabama at 12:00 p.m. aired on FS Oklahoma Feb. 9 at 5 p.m.Tuesday, March 10 vs. No. 3 Virginia at 4:00 p.m.Friday, March 27 vs. No. 18 TCU at 5:30 p.m.Sunday, March 29 vs. No. 9 Texas at 1:00 p.m.Sunday, April 19 vs. No. 24 Oklahoma State...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 4, 2015 | Blog
Wednesday February 4th is National Signing Day for College Football so with many tennis fans also fans of other sports I thought I’d put out the below spreadsheet for all to see.Recruiting and recruiting rankings are always a captivating subject because everyone wants to sign the Blue Chip can’t miss person because the assumption is if the person is that highly ranked there’s no way they’re not going to perform at the next level. On the flip-side if a person is a 4-star then while it’s recognized that they’re a good player most would think they can’t compete with the big boys. But ultimately it’s up to the...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 4, 2015 | Blog
Both the ITA and D1 Men’s Coaches released their polls today and both have the same teams 1 through 4 with USC, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Georgia but after that there are a few differences. See the image below to see the side-by-side comparison. Here are the links to the respective releases for each poll and the College Tennis Online release has a good bit of detailed info about each team in the Top 10. ITACTO So what does everyone think – is there a team ranked too or low?Based on these current rankings if the 16 teams slotted for the National Indoors in Chicago each win out these would be your likely pairings.[1] USC vs. [16] Penn State[8] Ohio...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 3, 2015 | Blog
With the Illinois/Notre Dame match getting postponed due to bad weather the only action on the courts today was on the women’s side in Charlottesville where #10 Virginia hosted #9 Georgia. Virginia happily welcomed back its top 2 players (Elbaba, Collins) who had been out ill with the flu but Georgia came out strong and swept all 3 doubles courts to grab the early 1-0 lead. Each team claimed 3 1st sets but while Virginia was able to close out each of its 3 in straight sets, Georgia was getting more pushback. With Virginia leading 3-1, Georgia’s Lauren Herring was up 7-5, 5-2 on Julia Elbaba at #1, UGA’s Ellen Perez led...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 2, 2015 | Blog
The 4 team 4 match Pac 12/SEC Challenge came to a conclusion today in Athens and it was USC being crowned the unofficial champs by virtue of being the only team to finish the weekend undefeated. The Trojans got off to a quick start by going up early breaks on all 3 doubles courts and while Georgia was able to get it back on serve at #3 doubles USC wouldn’t let up at 1 or 2 and finished those 2 rather quickly to grab the 1-0 lead. USC came out strong in singles as well taking 3 of 4 1st sets (4 indoor courts being utilized) and while Georgia would battle back they just couldn’t keep up with the USC power. Yannick...
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